“When we characterize talk as hot air, we mean that what comes out of the speaker’s mouth is only that. It is mere vapor. His speech is empty, without substance or content. His use of language, accordingly, does not contribute… — Harry G. Frankfurt Copy Share Image
“We may seek to distance ourselves from bullshit, but we are more likely to turn away from it with an impatient or irritated shrug… — Harry G. Frankfurt Copy Share Image
“Morality can provide at most only a severely limited and insufficient answer to the question of how a person should live.” — Harry G. Frankfurt Copy Share Image
“Our natures are, indeed, elusively insubstantial—notoriously less stable and less inherent than the nature of other things. And insofar as this is the case,… — Harry G. Frankfurt Copy Share Image
“That is why she cannot be regarded as lying; for she does not presume that she knows the truth, and therefore she cannot be deliberately promulgating a proposition that she presumes to be false: Her statement is grounded neither in a belief that it is true, not, as a lie must be, in a belief that it is not true.… — Harry G. Frankfurt Copy Share
“After all, every use of language without exception has some, if not all, of the characteristic features of lies.” — Harry G. Frankfurt Copy Share Image
“The notion of carefully wrought bullshit involves, then, a certain inner strain. Thoughtful attention to detail requires discipline and objectivity. It entails accepting standards… — Harry G. Frankfurt Copy Share Image
“The contemporary proliferation of bullshit also has deeper sources, in various forms of skepticism which deny that we can have any reliable access to… — Harry G. Frankfurt Copy Share Image
“When we characterize talk as hot air, we mean that what comes out of the speaker’s mouth is only that. It is mere vapor.… — Harry G. Frankfurt Copy Share Image
“However, it must not be assumed that bullshit always and necessarily has pretentiousness as its motive.” — Harry G. Frankfurt Copy Share Image
